Students from around the world calculated their class mean and standard deviations for their footprints and posted them on our world map.
Do you see differences across the globe? If so, why do you think those differences exist?
Did you use the calculator to try to reduce your footprint down to the average from a citizen of another country? What changes would you have to make to lower your footprint in this way? Are you going to try and take some of these actions in your daily life?
Student Footprints >
Smaller homes reduce our carbon footprint
http://www.opb.org/news/blog/ecotrope/r … ootprints/
Has anyone heard of the 'tiny house movement'? As an avid 'Pinterest collector', I've become extremely interested in tiny houses and smaller homes. Not only do smaller homes need less materials to build, but carbon emissions shrink up to 36%. Some houses are smaller than 500 feet and contain only a loft bedroom, bathroom, small kitchen, and a smaller living space, but do we really need thousands of square feet houses? As I've gotten older, I've realized it's not so much what you own, but the experiences you gather over your lifetime. I think I wouldn't mind living in a small house, as long as I had a working bathroom. Some of these houses you can even build upon a trailer and you basically get to take your home with you wherever you go.
Another fantastic idea I've noticed lately is the reuse of shipping containers into home. Below is another cool article I found that shows the reuse of these containers into gorgeous homes. Some of these houses cost less than $40,000 to buil d and are actually being used in the construction of low-income housing.
Hi Megan!
This is really interesting. I currently live in a small townhouse. Although it is larger than 500 feet, I do consider it smaller than most of the houses my friends live in. Comparatively, my house has all the attributes you list: a smaller living space, small kitchen and not many bedrooms. My house is not only cosy, but my consumption of fossil fuels is certainly limited, compared to someone living in a 1000 square feet house. There are a lot of differences environmentally between larger houses and smaller houses, discussed by a blogger Gabriella on the website Tiny House Build. Differences in electricity use, heating/cooling system and the amount of lumber used to build houses really gives you a perspective into how much of a difference we as individuals could make if we were to live in smaller houses. Great post!
http://tinyhousebuild.com/tiny-houses-infographic/